iPhone Dev Team Halts Jailbreaking Attempts on iOS 4.0.x

By Bryan Chaffin

Aug 26th, 2010 7:39 PM EDT

The iPhone Dev Team announced Thursday that the group would not work to develop a jailbreaking method for iOS 4.0.2 (for iPhone) or iOS 3.2.2 (for iPad). Calling its running battle with Apple a game of “cat & mouse,” the developers said that it would instead focus its efforts on jailbreaking iOS 4.1.x, which is currently in beta at Apple.

“If the cat & mouse game escalates too quickly,” the group said, “especially during beta [Firmware] periods, nobody but Apple benefits. For this reason, there won’t be a 4.0.2/3.2.2 jailbreak specifically during the period where 4.0.2/3.2.2 is the latest public release. At best, some future 4.1x FW jailbreak *may* be compatible with 4.0.2/3.2.2 (but don’t count on that).”

The jailbreak technique the group developed for iOS 4/3.2.1 depended on a security flaw in the way the OS dealt with PDF files. In addition to the jailbreak the group released, the security hole could have been exploited by malicious hackers to take over an iPhone. Apple quickly released a patch for the PDF security hole and released it as iOS 4.0.2/3.2.2.